An attorney for Mark Zuckerberg has publicly stated he did possess an agreement with Paul Ceglia, a New York wood fuel salesman who claims he is the owner of 84 percent of Facebook. So it might not be “completely frivolous”.
“Mr Zuckerberg did have a contract with Mr Ceglia,” Facebook lawyer Lisa Simpson told a federal court.
Ceglia, also a web designer, states that he hired Zuckerberg via Craigslist in 2003 for $1,000 to code a project called “StreetFax”, a photograph database for insurance companies.
An 18-year-old Zuckerberg told Ceglia, it’s alleged, that he was creating a social network for Harvard college students and requested him to invest in the development, which he states he did in the amount of another $1,000. The social network was the forerunner to Facebook, Ceglia says.
A copy of the contract in Ceglia’s complaint describes a website “designed to provide students of Harvard university access to a wesite similar to a live functioning yearbook with the working title of ‘The Face Book’”. It appears to be signed by Mark Zuckerberg.
The contract, due for completion on 1 January 2004, granted Ceglia a 50 per cent stake. For every day past the due date he would be granted a further one per cent, leading to his 84 per cent ownership claim.
In spite of admitting Zuckerberg had a contract with Ceglia, Facebook’s attorneys disputed the credibility of the document in the complaint.
“What the contract asserts is there is a relationship about Facebook and there isn’t one.”
Yesterday’s hearing concerned a temporary restraining order acquired by Ceglia that could have prevented Facebook from moving any assets. Facebook will attempt to have the case thrown out.
